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A PROMISE TO CAROLYN
SYNOPSIS
S
Based on a true story, "A Promise To Carolyn" opens with Debra traveling to McKinney to spend the Christmas holidays with her family. Anxious about
seeing Kay, their father Butch Maggart (Bill McKinney) and Jolene, Debra slips into a mysterious flashback in which she sees a baby sitting in the back seat of a car. Always certain of Jolene's guilt, Kay's relationship with
her parents has long been rocky. Debra, on the other hand, has always tried to skirt the issue, wishing to forget the past. An aficionado of astrology, Kay asks Debra to inquire about the exact time
of Carolyn's birth so she could read her astrological chart. Debra reluctantly agrees to ask Butch, knowing the consequences such a question could bring.
Predictably, Butch and Jolene express displeasure with her question and blame Kay for bringing up the past. The story then travels back to the mid 1950's when Debra, Kay and Carolyn
were moving into a Texas motel with Butch and Jolene, who just abducted the girls from Back in McKinney, while staying with Butch and Jolene
over Christmas, Debra continues to have vague flashbacks similar to the one she experienced on the bus. At Kay's Christmas party, these flashbacks begin to take their toll on the sister's relationship, as they
argue about Carolyn's death. Denying Kay's accusations of indifference, Debra claims that she was too young to remember what exactly happened. Breaking down out of anger, Kay reveals that Carolyn did not fall off a bed,
but was violently thrown to the ground by Jolene. Back home, Debra sends in a request for Carolyn's medical records, which she asks her doctor to review. Kay places a call to Detective Randy Goodson
(Lawrence Monoson) of the McKinney Police Department to find photographs of Carolyn that she remembers were taken just before her funeral. Debra's doctor deducts from Carolyn's records that she certainly was beaten to
death, as supported by notes of bruises, a black eye and a crushed skull. Now thoroughly convinced that Jolene did indeed kill Carolyn, Debra travels back to McKinney to help Kay uncover the truth and bring their stepmother
to justice. At the police station, Debra and Kay tell Goodson how Jolene liked to hurt them by feeding them things that made them ill, and when they'd refuse to
eat, she would beat them until they complied. Realizing that her memory of Carolyn's murder is vague and that the D.A. needs more proof of what happened, Debra insists that she be hypnotized to find out the truth, which
Goodson eventually approves. As a psychologist guides Debra back to the murder, she beg After further investigation into Debra's and Kay's stories, and showing the videotape of Debra's hypnosis to the D.A., Goodson
gets permission to exhume Carolyn's body to determine the extent of her injuries. Forensic experts determine that Carolyn had a broken rib and a tear in her skull resulting from an impact similar to a fall from a four-story
building, not from a simple fall off a bed. With physical proof in hand, Goodson arrests Jolene for Carolyn's murder, but he still needs witnesses to corroborate the sisters' story and to run lab tests to determine what the
exact color of the dress Carolyn wore when she was buried. Kay believes that the dress was lavender, while Debra says that it was yellow. This causes a discrepancy in their story, which could be used to prove Jolene's
innocence. Claiming that child abuse was strictly a family matter when the murder occurred, a doctor who treated Carolyn in the emergency room years earlier
offers no help in supporting their story. Eventually, a nurse who was also at the hospital and who authorities thought had since died, calls the D.A. to tell him that she remembered Carolyn being cove The stress of being responsible for Jolene's arrest, and the likelihood of testifying against her drives Debra to think about backing out, but she is persuaded to stay strong by the D.A.'s assistant. She is also
buoyed by her reunion with an aunt who offered the three girls their only sanctuary from their unloving parents. Shortly after taking the stand to testify, the
D.A. tells Debra of test results that ascertain the color of Carolyn's dress as yellow with lavender trim. Debra is now instilled with the strength and courage to testify against Jolene.
Jolene is found guilty of murder without malice, but is sentenced according to the law as it existed in 1955 and is given a five year suspended sentence. Having finally found justice by uncovering the ever elusive truth
about their sister's death, Debra and Kay pay one last visit to Carolyn's grave before leaving McKinney to let their murdered sister know that she can finally rest in peace.
uspicious for almost 40 years of the circumstances surrounding the death
of their youngest sibling in 1955, sisters Debra Harper (Delta Burke) and Kay Wilbanks (Swoosie Kurtz) convince authorities in McKinney, Texas to investigate their baby sister's questionable death. Victims of
abusive parents, Debra and Kay are haunted by the misfortunes of their abused childhood and the tragic loss of their youngest sister, Carolyn, who allegedly died from a fall off a bed. Convinced that Carolyn's
death was at the hands of their cold and cruel stepmother, Jolene Maggart (Shirley Knight), Kay and Debra delve into their traumatic pasts to bring the killer to justice.
Butch's unreliable ex-wife. With the three sisters having
difficulty adjusting to the change and wanting to return to their real mother, Jolene begins to verbally and physically abuse them.
ins to tremble as she returns to see Jolene lose her
patience while trying to put Carolyn's shoes on, driving her to yank Carolyn out of her chair and violently slam her down to the hardwood floor. As Debra shrieks from the horror of reliving Carolyn's murder, Kay
rushes to comfort her as she fades out of the memory.
red with bruises, and as an abused child herself, had never forgotten about Carolyn. Now the authorities have a rock solid case against Jolene.
[Jewel][Run the Wild Fields] [Thirst][Emma's Wish][Co-Ed Call Girl] |
[A Promise to Carolyn][Dangerous Intentions][The Disappearance of Vonnie] |